This Day in History

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December 21

Today is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, with the shortest day and longest night of the year. Those of us in the Southern Hemisphere get their Summer Solstice.

Today, the Heathenry (and other forms of Neopaganism) begin celebrating Yule.

Blue Christmas (or Longest Night) is a day in Western Christianity's Advent season marking the longest night of the year (Winter Solstice).

Plymouth, Massachusetts celebrates Forefathers' Day today. It is a commemoration of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in Plymouth, on December 21, 1620.

There are 10 days remaining in 2016.

There are 3 days until Christmas. If haven't finished your shopping yet, you better be finding another gear.


Events

69 – The Roman Senate declares Vespasian emperor of Rome, the last in the Year of the Four Emperors.

1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1826 – American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declare their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion.

1872 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England.

1879 – World premiere of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1910 – An underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit in Over Hulton, Westhoughton, England, kills 344 miners.

1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

1936 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 88 multi-role combat aircraft.

1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre.

1946 – An 8.1 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaidō, Japan, kills over 1,300 people and destroys over 38,000 homes.

1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.

1970 – First flight of F-14 Tomcat multi-role combat aircraft.

1970 - A stretch limousine carrying Elvis Presley pulled up outside the White House in Washington, D.C. The driver handed over a letter from Elvis addressed to President Nixon requesting a meeting to discuss how the King of Rock and Roll could help Nixon fight drugs. The President agreed to give Presley a Narcotics Bureau badge - but only after learning that the chief of the narcotics bureau had turned down the same request earlier that day and told Presley the only person who could overrule his decision was the President. At Elvis' request, the meeting remained secret for more than a year, until the Washington Post broke the story on January 27th, 1972.

1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.

2012 - 'Gangnam Style' by South Korean musician Psy became the first YouTube video to reach a billion views.

Births

1795 – Jack Russell (Jack Russell Terrier); 1804 – Benjamin Disraeli; 1915 – Werner von Trapp♪ ♫(of the The Sound Of Music vonn Trapps); 1918 – Donald Regan; 1918 – Kurt Waldheim; 1922 – Paul Winchell; 1926 – Freddie Hart♪ ♫; 1926 – Joe Paterno; 1935 – Phil Donahue; 1937 – Jane Fonda; 1940 – Frank Zappa(The Mothers Of Invention); 1943 – Albert Lee; 1946 – Carl Wilson(The Beach Boys, younger brother of Dennis & Brian); 1948 – Samuel L. Jackson; 1950 – Jeffrey Katzenberg (co-founded Dreamworks); 1951 – Nick Gilder♪ ♫(sang "Hot Child In The City"); 1954 – Chris Evert; 1955 – Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm In The Middle); 1957 – Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond); 1959 – Florence Griffith Joyner "FloJo"; 1965 – Andy Dick; 1966 – Kiefer Sutherland; 1969 – Julie Delpy; 1974 – Karrie Webb

Deaths

72 – Thomas the Apostle; 1937 – Ted Healy (created The Three Stooges); 1940 – F. Scott Fitzgerald; 1945 – George S. Patton; 1974 – Richard Long (The Big Valley); 1990 – Clarence 'Kelly' Johnson(designed the Lockheed U-2 and Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, and many others); 1992 – Stella Adler; 1992 – Albert King; 2014 – Billie Whitelaw(the nanny in The Omen)